In the year 3000AD will a significant majority (99%+) of humans on this planet accept that Jesus Christ was a [criminal] carpenter who was executed for [serious crimes at the time] and is NOT coming back?
What about in the year 5000AD?
Or the year 12000AD?
The year 54000AD?
In each scenario assume the human race is still in significant existence on this planet.
At what point will all adults view Jesus the same way that they view Santa Clause (a nice thought but not real)?
At what point are 99.999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999+% of the human populace going to reject this crap?
In the year 3000AD will a significant majority (99+%) of humans on this planet accept that Jesus Christ was a [criminal] carpenter who was executed for [serious crimes at the time] and is NOT coming back?
What about in the year 5000AD?
Or the year 12000AD?
The year 54000AD?
In each scenario assume the human race is still in significant existence on this planet.
At what point will all adults view Jesus the same way that they view Santa Clause (a nice thought but not real)?
The answer is “who knows?” In a few hundred years we may all be enhanced to such a degree that no one takes Christianity or any other religion seriously. Or on the other hand the sole survivors of humanity might be the survivors of religious World Wars, all genetically engineered for religious fanaticism, and with brain implants and programming ensuring their everlasting fidelity to Christianity until the sun goes out. Or natural disasters or war may manage to reduce us to a precivilization state, and all modern religions will fade into legend and be forgotten in favor of new ones.
Er, well, given (first) that there’s at least an argument to be made that he didn’t exist at all, and (second) that if he did, his crimes were apparently rather mild (overturning some tables, mistakenly being thought of as a riot-inducing revolutionary), I’m not really sure why 99%+ of humans should accept that.
To the title Q, I don’t believe it will ever happen- rather it will be more likely that the vast majority of humanity will eventually trust Christ as Lord & Savior, whether by the work of the Spirit through the Church or by the direct Return of Jesus.
Interestingly, there is a small movement of Chrisitians now, both liberal & conservative theologically &/or politically, who do not believe that in a literal Return of Christ & End of the World. These “Full Preterists” believe that all “End Times” prophecy referred to the End of the Old Covenant system in 70 A.D. & the Roman persecution of the Church, and that the General Resurrection & Last Judgment happens to each person at death. In the meantime, they tend to believe in the gradual Christianization of the world.
It’s an interesting question. The Catholic Church is reportedly losing followers rapidly, but I don’t know if that’s specific to Catholicism or part of an overall trend among Christians. Anyone know?
The historical nature of Jesus is the consensus among most historians that study that part of history. I’m a Catholic but I’ve always had no issue with looking at the totally secular historical aspects of religious history with what I feel is a relatively unbiased eye.
The biggest problem most “Jesus didn’t exist” people have is they pretty much don’t value any form of history aside from written history that was written down at the exact same time or immediately after the events described in the text. However the truth of the matter is much of our history is based on sources that were writing about events in their past, sometimes 100+ years or more at best. There’s also people who spend their entire careers trying to reconstruct history from oral traditions and oral historical records. Once you realize that most written history can be just as fake and made up as any oral history, I think you might get over relying on such methods.
Graham Stanton, as respected biblical historian has said:
That tends to mirror most of my readings on that subject, obviously since the 1800s there have been and continues to be real historians who disagree.
Now, the truth of the matter is there was almost certainly a guy in that area who was a religious leader. He attracted a following and that turned into Christianity. Were older parables and myths attached to this person? Of course. Were things said about this person that never happened? Of course. Is it possible his name wasn’t even Jesus? Sure. But most historians think it highly unlikely he didn’t exist at all.
Both of which are flat out impossible, since there’s no such thing as a “spirit”, nor is there any way some millennia dead lunatic could show up. The most likely way for Christianity to achieve a “vast majority” would be a successful massacre of most of the world’s non-Christian population. Christianity only spread as far as it has in the first place by the slaughter and subjugation of whole populations and the destruction of entire cultures; not due to any “spirit”.
That’s good and well, something of a hijack. I wasn’t making the argument that he did not exist – I was implying that, because some people believe so and others are not sure, it will probably never be the case that essentially all of humanity believes in a Jesus who was justly executed. It seemed like a rather silly embellishment to me; he didn’t want to say simply “Christianity is bunk; when will everyone figure that out?” but wanted to add something extra, e.g. “And that guy you call God was a damned criminal.”
Religions come and go. The Egyptian gods were worshiped for far longer than Christianity has existed. Now nobody believes in them. Christianity itself will meet the same fate – abandoned for some new belief system that better serves people’s needs.
Well, make up your mind, justly executed criminal who deserves oblivion, or fictional archetype of a nice but illusory ideal (although I’ll grant you may have a point with the the Santa Claus example if you mean that the archetype no longer has much relation to the original person, the Bishop Saint Nicholas.) And if the latter, good luck ever wiping out the notion.
As for the question, well, about the same time as nobody venerates Rama or Krishna, or wishes peace-unto-him when Muhammad’s name is mentioned.